Tuesday, May 31, 2011

We will be celebrating Children's Day (1st June) here in Shanghai and I think schools around here will be closing for 1 day to celebrate Children's Days too.

Sales were going on in most toys shops and parents were rushing to get some gifts to cheer up their kids while bakeries were catering for all sorts of cute cakes celebrating the day :)

I also did some baking for the day to cheer up my little girl and the little cupcakes were finally done with hubby and little Angel's "help" :) She even make 2 of her own cupcakes *smile* Can you spot them? (Answers at the bottom page)

This is my first fondant cupcakes and I just love the vibrant colours which goes well with the Children's Day theme ^_^

Happy Children's Day to all the Children in this world ^_^

Daddy and mommy love you all so so much! *muaks*

P/s: Top left (apple tree) and lower right (rainbow?) was Angel's creation ^_^

Friday, May 27, 2011

She has been asking to go to her drawing class so many times and I have to call up the teacher for another extra painting session. This is the little alley that we have to crossed to get to her classe everytime and the little girl is so happy posing for me ^_^

There she enters this little wooden door where the enchanted garden was. I wonder why she has to pose with her fingers pointing up like that :)

This place is filled with a great sense of artistically feel. Beautiful paintings and colours are all over the place and waited for me to explore and wherever I looked. I can't fail to get great pictures from any corner I pointed my camera at ^_^

She has a very nice little garden surrounded by beautiful flowers and trees. Butterflies flying around, birds chipping and it's truly an oasis in the middle of this gigantic city of concrete!

I can see little details worth capturing in and out this place and I do hope that the teacher doesn't mind me posting up 'her house' as I find it very hard to resist showing how beautifully that she has done to make her 'home' so serene and beautiful.

Her little garden was decorated with small details which never fails to bring surprises and smile onto my face. What a heaven on earth hiding in that small little space that she owns. Looking out of the windows everyday seeing trees swaying and flowers smiling at you every morning .... owww, I wanna live there ^_^

There ..... my little girl, attending her art class in that comfy living room sitting on that cute little chairs and tables doing what she likes to do.

The huge painting there was the teacher's art of work. Oh my .... so talented and it looks so real (and expensive :P) ..... and to be able to cultivate my little girl's creativity in such a heavenly space is truly a blessing.

There Angel was, sitting quietly and doing her art work without making a move .... again! Fully concentrating in her work.

While waited for her, I can help myself with the massive collection of books and novels from the shelves. It's the teacher's own collection and mostly were about arts around the world, travelling and children's award winning publications around the world. I can sit there the entire day digging for 'treasure' in the bookland while sipping into the coffee ready by the teacher everyday :) :) :)

Angel is asked to 'design' an outfit today. The teacher asked her to named her favourite animals and she think for awhile and said, "I love Giraffe ~~"

But when the teacher suggested that they design an outfit for her beloved giraffe and suddenly, she dissented strongly saying that giraffe doesn't need to wear clothes! @_@ When asked why can't we, she just pretested and said, "Giraffe is not a people (human) ~~." @_@

So finally, they agreed on a self portrait and designing a nice dress for herself instead. She wants the teacher to draw a 'pretty Angel' and she picked her own colour and asked to have that self portrait wearing a nice pink skirt holding 2 giraffe soft toys.

The teacher was impressed that she could and 'insisted' to paint the border neatly (teacher asked me was she a virgo @_@) and also giving her little blouse a nice purple touch to match with her pink skirt. Initially, she wanted a light green pants with a dark green shoes .....

...... but the light green pants and the dark green shoes end up with the same green all over :P :P :P

Finally, she get to choose some decorations for her hair. She picked a green ribbon and then further requested for another a red piece of cloth. She then made a 'scarf' for herself! *smile* She likes balloons which I always declined to get her one hence she wanted the teacher helping her to do an orange balloon in her drawing.

As when the teacher thought that she was done, suddenly she reached for a blue and painted herself (at the right lower corner) a dog and a rocket flying on top of the dog!!!! *laugh* Errmm ..... I think she was longing for a pet dog too?

She was very pleased with her own creation and requested to have her picture taken like that ..... cheeky little girl ^_^

I absolutely love this piece of art done by her. And the more I looked at it, the more I love it ^_^

I was informed that in the formal class, the kids will be grouping into small groups and requested to do some handcrafts and some act / play / story telling time using the handcrafts that they have made. Once in awhile, the class will be wrapped up with a small tea party in the garden or something which will cheer the kids up too :)

Initially I thought that she will find such art classes too plain (no running, playing and singing, etc) but surprisingly, she told me she likes the class very much (and also constantly asking for a ballet lesson too @_@).

This place is such a beautiful and enchanting little secret garden hiding in the middle of the CBD. I think this is the 'one and only' place where she could really sit still and fully concentrating in whatever she is doing for hours without being told to for once, just like a little ...... princess :)

I am so happy that we have found such a "too good to be true" place for her art session to be conducted looking. No more boring classes and concrete wall :P

We went there pretty often now ...... and this is her 3rd craft + drawing from her lesson. She has done a fish origami paper craft + a house and there she goes, a fish family with her flying house travelling under the sea :)

If everything is according to plan, this will be another place where Angel would hang around often from now on venturing into her world of colours and play ^_^

Thursday, May 26, 2011

Brought Angel for another drawing session with one of the very beautiful and talented teacher in town. Actually, she is not any ordinary teacher ..... or should I say she is an artist who do arts as a living ^_^ What an artist!

When we reached her place, it's already 3pm while Angel starts to get a little grumpy from escaping her afternoon nap. Once she saw her painting board being put up on the drawing rack that way, she quickly sit down on her little chair saying, "我要paint~~! 我要paint~~!"

^ ^ She seriously need a nap coz she looks so tired!

But once the little paint brush is in her hand, the engine inside her is moving again ^_^ I am really glad that the painting session is conducted outdoor overlooking a beautiful garden. Not as boring as sitting in a confined area breathing air con all day long :)

The theme for the day was "Plant" and the beautiful teacher asked Angel to paint her very own garden but she replied, "but ... I don't know how to paint wor!" @_@ She need some warming up usually. So the teacher encouraging her by painting a little blue flower for her and how to use the colour mixing pallet, slowly the little girl moves her brush across the drawing paper and making her first stroke.

The teacher watched her silently while helping her along the way and I saw my little girl extremely x1000 concentrated in her work without even saying a word! *surprised* On and off I heard her telling the teaching "我要洗～～"(I want to wash my brush) or "不不不 ～～"(no no no) or "我要这个red ～～" (I want red) or "你用big，我用small～～"(you used the big brush, I use the small one) but, her eyes were glued to her work all the time.

And there she was, 'Angel The Little Artist' putting in her 100% concentration expressing her thoughts in her drawings :P No jumping and monkeying around, no talking and screaming unnecessary, no moving her feet up and down, no constantly moving left and right from her chair like she has insects in her pants, no "mommy how? mommy how? mommy how oh" calling me thousand times non stop like what she normally does when she did her drawings with me at home.

She just sit there quietly, doing what she has to do and everything seems so calm and serene for once (I can actually hear birds chipping, no kidding :P) and that lasted for the entire 1 an hour! Simply magical!!

The teacher come over and told me she has quite a good concentration for kids her age. I just smiled unbelievably ^_^

Even I walked passed her and took pictures of her but she doesn't seems to be disturbed by my existence at all, unlike she used to call me and look at me with some other classes we had attended. I am like thin air to her that day :P

What a great artistic pose of drawing my little artist ^_^

The end results is simply so cute! She drew a few flowers with stars (blue and yellow) all over the skies with a "Person" (as she said) holding a Teddy Bear (drew by teacher). A big red sun in the middle with a heart-shape friend. Dark blue snails are crawling under the flowers too.

The teacher told us that from her drawings, she can see that Angel is a very happy and a jolly little 'blue' girl holding her teddy bear (teddy bear by teacher.) ^_^. She loves bright colour and she would painted everything + everyone in her work with a big bright smiling face. Teacher told me that's a very encouraging sign from a young children because it shows how HAPPY they were at her present stage.

Oh my ..... at that moment, silly me almost broke down in happy tears. Hey, how many chances that a mom gets to be told that her girl is really feeling HAPPY deep down inside? I am smiling ear to ear even in my dreams to know that my girl is HAPPY :)

This teacher is indeed very talented and has a few of her own publications / books all of her own drawings and art works (refer picture below) and she also draws for the World Expo Shanghai 2011 too. What's more, her beutiful garden and her living room is entirely designed, decorated and hand painted all by herself! I am a total handicapped when it comes to arts and drawings! Urrggh!! And now, wow ..... I think we met a real life artist for once!

Tuesday, May 24, 2011

Finally brought Angel for her first Art class in Baby Art. I called it an art class because they don't teach drawings. Instead, they teaches everything and anything around us and let the children express their own imagination through art (drawings, handcrafts, act, etc).

This art center is located at a new shopping mall so we have time to enjoy a good bowl of WanTon Mee and roasted goose + pork at one of the restaurant there before heading to her class. She is all excited when the teacher helped her to put on her little blue apron :) Luckily she didn't asked for a pink one :P

When I first stepping into her class ...... "OMG" was the only word coming out from my mind! The wall .... the wall in the classroom was full of the kids' "work of art"!!!! *I am praying that she doesn't do that at home :P* But comes to think of it, it's indeed a great opportunity for the kids to express themselves as and how they liked it. Why do they only given the freedom to draw on that proper boring art paper placing neatly on tables? Why not on the walls (or bathroom walls) if they were meant for that purposes and allowed such a little space of thier own to express themselves? *relief a little*

So I hold Angel's hands told her that this is a "wall of art" where she can drew as per teacher's instruction ...... and ..... and .... and ...... of course, I also can't stop myself from reminding her that she can never-ever do that at home! *sorry, can't help it :P*

She doesn't seems to miss us at all and were mingling happily with the little boy in her class. I was told that the kids were going to do "Things up in the sky" for that day and the teacher will do some story telling and act before they can draw their own "Things up in the sky" just the way they liked it.

After waving the loooooooong goodbye *from daddy and mommy actually, sob sob*, we waited / watched our little girl participated in her class from the CCTV screen at the waiting hall anxiously. We saw the teacher switched off the lights and took out a flashlight, while the kids taking turn do some treasure hunting in the sky up up above (ceilings actually :P) and following the teacher doing some moves and happily going round and round the classroom ^_^

Before the class ended, we were invited to take a look at Angel's first painting. According to the teacher:

1) She loves pink and only wants pink!2) She is a 天生小管家 / "The Little Teacher" in class who likes to take care and look after for other kids while sometimes totally forgetting about her own work :P3) She wants to do most of the things herself without help! *that sound so much like her*4) She refused to paint the sky black (night) and insisted to have her night sky painted in blue! :P5) She printed a few Stars, Shooting Stars, a Pink Moon and also a Car in her sky! When asked was there a car in the sky, she said YES! *laugh* Too much Little Einstein and Mickey Mouse Club House?6) She takes instruction very well dispite the language barrier (but must remined her over and over gain) and is very helpful towards other kids. Very helpful until she help the other kid to draw a moon (and insisted must have a moon in the sky) on his piece of art work! :P

After the class, kids were to washed their little hands in this cute little wash area designed especially for the kids! I love the vibrant colours of the wash area, so cute!

She also got 3 stickers for her job well done which she refused to take it off her face. She was walking around the mall with those stickers on until her sweats melted the stickers away finally. When she found her stickers was missing, she insisted the teacher has took them away and would return it to her when she meets her next week :P Sure ..... Sure my baby :)

When we left, there was a kids birthday party going on and the kids were to decorate their own birthday cakes with the help from their mommy! That's so pretty!

Angel keep asking to join the group but I told her it's mei mei's birthday party and she has to be invited. She was very sad despite I told her that I will bring her to another baking session with me soon. Luckily after a few shirt pulling and floor stamping, finally she settle for a mommy and Angel's cake celebration in a nearby cafe. My Angel just love baking so much!

The 2 pieces of art work from her 2 lessons in Baby Art. On the left is the "Things Up In The Sky" and the one of the right is the "Things in the sea". She didn't drew the sea creatures on the drawing but she helped to paint the colour of the sea and telling teacher what she wants on her painting. Nice try though since it's her first few classes :)

I really liked the concept of the art class which cultivating kids imagination and thoughts through arts. I was told it was a concept brought into the country from the US and sure enough, Angel loves her class so much.

Monday, May 23, 2011

I was having a terrible tummy ache and our little girl has been asking me out for a pizza for days. Hubby was attending his usual 'business' dinner with his clients and will be heading home late. I was lying in bed when she woke up from her long nap and without being helped, she got herself all dressed up in her outdoor outfit, walked into my room ready to get going while she saw me still not getting ready yet lying lifelessly on bed.

"Angel, mommy is having a tummy ache so we might not be going for a pizza today ok?" I said

She looked at me and frown then suddenly putting both her hands on my tummy and pressed hard while I was groaning in pain and asked what was she doing.

"Mommy, I massage your tummy ah ....""If mommy's tummy pain-pain nevermind la, we go next time la." Then still with her outdoor outfit on, she went back to her room and watched the TV without protesting for the sudden changed of plans.

Ater few hours tossing and turning on the bed, I drag myself up and get changed as I have a promise to keep. It's heart breaking to see disappointment in my girls' eyes especially when she is being such an angel. When she saw me get ready to go, her eyes all brighten up and jumping around in joy while repeating "Mommy, I love you so-very much mommy!" *kids are so easy to please*

So we walked down the streets, a very windy night at 10pm where most shops have closed and our girl who normally refused me to hold her hands who always jumping and doing her dangerous hip hop moves on the streets, grasp my hand tightly *surprise* while constantly checking on me

"Mommy, is your tummy still (in) pain? I hold your hand ok? We walk slowly ok? Is that slow-slow enough mommy?" She really doesn't sound like the normal loud and noisy little girl that she was.

Luckily, the pizza shop is opened 24 hours *yeah*. As I climbed up the stairs, she hold on tight to my hands tightly and said

"Mommy, you walk slowly ok?"

"Mommy, don't worry, I will listen to you and not make you angry ok?"

I look at my girl unbelievably and with a feeling of contentedness which I never felt before. ^_^

^ ^ Looking at the menu to see what's she wants to eat

So she ordered her own food *I didn't know she could do that* for the very first time, eating herself without being constantly reminded to and even helped me to 'take care' of my mobile phone when I was walking to get our drinks from the counter.

^ ^ Little pussy cat ^_^

On the way back, we were making stops all the way home because this little constantly hugging both my legs repeatedly and the only words she said to me was

"Mommy, I love you so-very much!" ^_^ That's the sweetest magic potion on earth and I feels so warm holding her little hands in mine walking down the windy lane.

When we headed back home, she didn't protest like she normally does. She gets herself changed back to her pajamas, hang all her clothes back to where they should be and even helped me to do the dishes in the kitchen, sweep the floor, gets the mop ready for me and then watched her cartoon without ..... without creating any 'trouble' at all.

She even helped me to fetch my pajamas when I was about to take my bath and even helped me to blow dry my hair ^_^ I am being served like a queen ^_^

Tonight was so incredibly ..... Warm and PEACEFUL, for once since many many months years ago. There was once crossed my mind that how nice that it would be if I can be sick more often I am healthy and well while she will behave so angelically for the rest of her growing years.

Tonight, I am smiling in my dream because .......

~~~~ I finally get a little glimpse of that little ANGEL in my girl ^_^ ~~~~

Saturday, May 21, 2011

We 'kind of' celebrated Mother's Day but not as excited as before since it's just a normal day here and it has been 4 years since I first become mom. As usual, I asked for my mother's day gift from hubby and he reminded that he gave me 'something' a week earlier and that's my gift so no more gift for that day *sob sob*

^ ^ Men are always not into the details. A gift to his wife and wrapped it in Angel's Toy'R Us wrapper?? *cik cik cik*

Angel saw mommy has a gift and she wanted a gift too. Lately she can be very long-winded and will be asking for something for the entire day until she gets it. So in order to have a peace and quite day just for once, I gave in and get her a little gift from my secret 'gift-box' and she actually saw where I pull the toys out from *careless me* saying she wanted to unwrapped all of them! Of course a big no-no as I have saved them for specials occasions so I asked her to pick just one and it's a cake set play dough with some new tools ^_^

I have forgotten what we had for breakfast and lunch but we did have a great tea break in Citta Cafe, @Hui Hai Road because I have finally found the greatest sandwich in town that I really x10000 liked. The coffee is ok and the salad is good but the sandwich is superb with the super chewy + crunchy bread, ham, tomatoes, dressing and my favourite super-strong flavoured imported cheese! Angel couldn't take the strong taste from the cheese so all end up in mommy's tummy (belly) :P

While sitting in the cafe, I asked hubby it's ok that no gift for the day but he has to make me something special and worth remembering while I headed to my once in a blue moon indulgence - a Thai massage. When I am done and rush back home, hubby said he has done his surprise and handed me a plate of ..... I don't know what to call it which consist of strawberries and sausages and chinese bak-kua (grilled pork)? What a weird combination that only he can ever think of, hahahaha. But I am happy with the 'heart shape' bak-kua that he has done for me.

Talking about the heart shaped bak-kua .... has he been ransacking into my bento tools again?

Ta daa .... as I have mention to him earlier that the salad we had in the cafe was quite good, this fellow is so capable to copy other's idea and make me another round of homemade salad. I can't stop laughing when I saw how nicely he has decorated his creation and even sprinkles some cheese on top of it. *clap clap* I am impressed ^_^

As I told him, this year I would make it simpler for him and I will get myself my own mother's day cake! I have an unused voucher from a bakery nearby and I am so happy to finally get rid of it before it expired. Well ..... the cake doesn't look the same as it was shown in the catalogue at all!!! And hubby commented that it's the most 'anciently' decorated cake that nobody does that in town anymore (yes, I can see that!! Urrggghhh ..... ) but luckily once we dig in, hubby love the taste and so does Angel. But due to the unattractive decoration of the cake, maybe we would never go back to that bakery again unless they are offering a very attractive deal.

Angel thought it's my birthday and she sang me Happy Birthday Song, asking me to make a wish while she hopped onto her high chair waiting for her share :)